


Be There For Me

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 06:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: Jughead is there for Betty when she is feeling sad about Polly





	Be There For Me

**Author's Note:**

> I reference Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, the Raven, a few times in this for some strange reason lol. So if you’ve never read it, it’s basically about a depressed guy who’s sitting alone at night reading when he hears this thumping at his door/window and a raven flies in and it keeps saying “nevermore” after every question the guy asks it. At first it amuses him but then it just makes the guy a little crazy and in the end the raven never leaves and the guy thinks his soul has been trapped beneath this devil-raven’s shadow. And that, my friends, is a very rough summary lol.

Betty Cooper propped herself up on the mountain of pillows sitting at the head of her queen-sized bed. She let her mind wander as she watched the light beams pouring in from the window bend back and forth as the trees blowing heavily from the breeze caused them to dance across the ceiling. She was deep in thought when a rapping at her window caused her to launch herself off the bed with a start, knocking pillows onto the floor and nearly toppling over the bedside table.

“Holy!” Betty shrieked, clutching her heart and breathing out a sigh of relief as she saw that it was a familiar face staring back at her through the glass and not a stranger’s sent to murder her. “Juggie, you scared me half to death.”

“Bets, you’re the one who called me remember?” Jughead’s lips curled into an amused smirk as he climbed through the open window and stepped into Betty’s bedroom. 

“I know,” Betty mumbled, straightening the collar on her sweater and crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “But that was just a really loud thump.”

“Betty, I tapped on the window with my index finger,” Jughead reasoned, his eyes dancing wildly as he saw how rattled she truly was. “I purposefully refrained from a full-on knock so I wouldn’t scare you.”

“Yeah, well, you should have seen my reaction to the tree branch hitting the window the other day,” Betty told him, crossing the room to pick up the fallen pillows by her bed and prop them back up in their correct positions. “I practically jumped out of my skin.”

“Well if a raven happens to fly through that window and starts talking to you, let me know so I can come by and make sure your soul hasn’t been trapped by it’s shadow or anything,” Jughead joked, referencing the Edgar Allen Poe poem they had read in class last year that he had been obsessed with ever since. 

“Ha ha,” Betty deadpanned, turning away from Jughead as she climbed back onto her bed to settle into her spot. “And if I’m being completely honest, even that wouldn’t surprise me these days.”

“Betty, are you alright?” Jughead asked, his brows drawing together in concern as he took a seat next to her on the other side of the bed. “You’ve looked pretty glum the past few weeks, which is odd considering that’s a very un-Betty-like thing to be.”

“Glum?” Betty scoffed, her nose crinkling in disgust at his odd choice of words. “Really, Juggie?”

“I’ve been reading a lot of 1940′s mystery novels lately,” Jughead explained, as if this were a very plausible reason for using such a term to describe his friend’s current mood. “I’ve picked up some of the vocabulary.” 

“I can see that,” Betty mumbled, a faint smile beginning to form on her lips, but never fully reaching her eyes. 

“Now, come on,” Jughead whispered, nudging her lightly with his elbow in an attempt to get her to meet his gaze. “I can tell that something’s wrong because you’ve got that little crease between your eyebrows that only sprouts up when you’re worried about something.” 

“That always was a dead giveaway, huh?” Betty frowned, her lips pouting the slightest bit as she pulled at a piece of fabric that was beginning to unravel on the quilt in front of her. 

“For those of us who know you, yeah,” Jughead agreed, watching with fascination as Betty’s fingers elegantly twisted and untwisted from the thread.

“You always did know me better than anyone, Juggie,” Betty admitted, finally prying her eyes away from the quilt to meet Jughead’s gaze. Their eyes lingered for a moment before Jughead pulled his feet underneath him into a criss-cross position and turned to face Betty.

“I love this picture.” Jughead reached for the photograph sitting at the foot of the bed, lightly running his fingers over a young Polly and Betty Cooper standing near the edge of a cliff, smiling as if they didn’t have a care in the world. “You guys look so free and happy here, like nothing could ever come between you.” 

“I was just going through some old photos, and that one stood out to me,” Betty explained, smiling as she looked at it from over Jughead’s shoulder. “Polly was never afraid to take a risk like that when we were younger. She was never afraid to go on roller coasters or listen to scary stories or stand by the edge of cliffs. She would always look out for me and protect me when she knew I couldn’t do those kinds of things without her.” 

“You miss her,” Jughead’s voice was soft, almost soothing, as Betty let her mind wander back to the time when things were simpler and Polly was still around. 

“I just wish things could have turned out differently, you know?” Betty sniffled, wondering when the tears had formed at the corners of her eyes and if Jughead had noticed. “I wish that she would have never even met Jason Blossom. Maybe then she wouldn’t have gotten sent away and things would just be… better.” 

“Maybe,” Jughead shrugged, turning in his spot on the bed to hand Betty the photograph. “But you can’t know that for sure. Even if there was no Jason Blossom, Polly is still who she is. Your parents are still who they are. And we both know that there was always something between them that would have driven them apart at some point, one way or another.”

Betty was quiet for a moment, leaving Jughead to wonder if he had overstepped and said something to offend her. But just as he opened his mouth to apologize, Betty pulled her knees to her chin and turned her head to smile sadly up at him.

“You’re right,” Betty sighed. “I know you’re right, but it still sucks.”

“I agree,” Jughead said, scooting forward on the bed to lift Betty’s chin off her knees so that she would meet his eyes. “It does suck. And it isn’t fair. But I know that Polly will come back someday. I know it. And I’ll be there for you when that day comes, and all the ones in between.” 

“That’s why I called you,” Betty told him, her lips twitching up into a lopsided smile. “I needed someone and… you were the only one I thought of.” 

“I even beat out the creepy soul-trapping raven?” Jughead joked, referencing the poem once again. “I must be really special then.”

“You are,” Betty agreed, glancing up at him with serious eyes that made all the light-hearted jokes fall away. “You’re really special to me, Jughead.” 

Betty’s breath caught in her throat as Jughead’s hand slid across her cheek and looped around to cup the back of her neck. Their lips were inches away from meeting when Betty’s phone buzzing at the foot of her bed caused them to pull away from one another.

“That’s Veronica,” Betty informed him as she leaned forward to see her friend’s name flashing across the screen. “She wanted to go over some English assignment that was giving her those, ‘brain sucking migraines,’ before cheer practice so-”

“Say no more. There’s a cheeseburger at Pop’s with my name on it, anyway,” Jughead hopped off the bed and headed for the window before turning back to raise his eyebrows in Betty’s direction. “You sure you’re gonna be okay? 

“Thanks to you,” Betty assured him. “You always know what to say to make me feel better.”

With one last meaningful smile, Jughead unlatched the window and turned back towards Betty. 

“Okay, I’m lifting up the window and stepping onto the ladder, so there might be a few loud noises here or there. Just warning you,” Jughead teased, causing Betty to launch an ivory-colored pillow at the back of his head in retaliation.“Ouch. I’m sorry! I’m guessing I’m no longer that special person who means so much to you and all the other nice things you just said about me?”

“Nevermore,” Betty agreed, scowling at him as he lingered a second longer on the ladder. “Get out of here, Juggie!”

Betty fell back onto her pillows, looking at the photo of her and Polly once more and smiling to herself. Jughead really did know how to make her feel better. And she knew that whatever happened between them in the future, Jughead would always be the person she’d call when she needed someone to be there for her. Always.


End file.
